Sunday, February 23, 2020

Donald Trump: India’s Hitting US ‘Very Hard’, Will Talk Biz With Modi

Donald Trump: India’s Hitting US ‘Very Hard’, Will Talk Biz With Modi

WASHINGTON: Ahead of his first visit to India, US President Donald Trump gave mixed signals about prospects for a trade deal between the two countries, saying India had been hitting the US “very hard” with high tariffs for many years and he would “talk business” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to promote American products.

President Trump and First Lady Melania are scheduled to travel to Ahmedabad, Agra and New Delhi on February 24-25. They are expected to be accompanied by their daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner. More than 100 journalists are expected to accompany Air Force One on a separate charter to chronicle the trip.

Downplaying the expectation of a trade deal with India during his visit, Trump said the two countries could make a “tremendous” trade deal, but indicated that the talks on this might slow down if he did not get a good deal. “We’re going to India, and we may make a tremendous deal there,” he said in his commencement address at the Hope for Prisoners Graduation Ceremony in Las Vegas.

“Maybe we’ll slow down. We’ll do it after the election. I think that could happen too. So, we’ll see what happens,” he said, adding, “But we’re only making deals if they’re good deals because we’re putting America first. Whether people like it or not, we’re putting America first,” he added.

Trump, who is seeking re-election in the November presidential polls, indicated that his visit will result in more products “proudly stamped with the beautiful phrase Made in the USA”.

At the Colorado campaign rally, the US President once again spoke about the grand welcome he is expecting in India — this time inflating to 10 million the number of people he thinks will turn up to greet him in Ahmedabad on the route from the airport to the newly-built Motera Stadium.

“I hear they’re going to have 10 million people. They say anywhere from six to 10 million people are going to be showing up along the route to one of the largest stadiums in the world, the largest cricket stadium in the world,” Trump said.

“Prime Minister Modi said, ‘we will have 10 million people to greet you’. Here’s my problem, we have a packed house. We have a lot of people, thousands of people who couldn't get in. It’s going to look like peanuts from now on. I’ll never be satisfied with the crowd. If we have 10 million people in India, how can I be satisfied when we fill up like a 60,000-seat stadium?” he said.

It is unclear how Trump expects 10 million people when the population of Ahmedabad is 5.6 million people. One explanation is he may have misconstrued Modi’s mention of lakh as a million.

Another widely proffered explanation is the Dunning Kruger Effect, which in psychology is a cognitive bias in which people assess their cognitive ability as greater than it is. In the past, the US President has insisted that crowds at his inauguration were bigger than at Obama’s, which was clearly not true. He has also complained of massive fake voting in the 2016 election to explain his getting 2.87 million fewer popular votes than Hillary Clinton, although there is no basis for the charge.

On Thursday, Trump was at it again, inflating India’s population to 1.5 billion — about 10% more than current estimates — while insisting that he topped Modi in Facebook following.

“I’m going to India next week, and we’re talking about — you know, they have 1.5 billion people. And Prime Minister Modi is number two on Facebook, number two. Think of that. You know who number one is? Trump. You believe that? Number one. I just found out,” Trump said in Las Vegas.

“The head of Facebook Mr Zuckerberg came in three weeks ago. He said, ‘Congratulations.’ I said, ‘On what?’ He said, ‘You’re number one on Facebook.’ I said, ‘That's cool.’ Number one on Twitter too,” the US President said, adding, “That’s because it’s true. And if I wasn’t, I could never say it because it would be breaking news that Trump told a fib. No, number one.”

Trump also claimed that he had congratulated Modi about it, saying he told him, “You know, you have 1.5 billion people. I have 350 million. You have an advantage.”